Legendary Member

I keep seeing news feeds that say "oh Tesla is having a crisis with the Model X quality" and "report are all over YouTube of problems".

So I found this one and one other little one.
These seem to be blown out of proportion. And the news feed "OH GOD!!! Tesla had to recall all 2700 Model Xs for the 3rd Row seat back Latch". Well, that was after the test failed once after passing 15 times before Launch. And they took care of it and in fact it was the part makers fault so THEY paid for the replacements and not Tesla

Seems like the powers that be are behind all this. Yesterday FORD recalled 200,000 vehicles for faulty Transmissions and it was barely a blip. And as far I know, Tesla hasn't hidden any defects that have Killed several people (a la GM).

Kinda irks me how the "establishment" is able to spin the news media to do its bidding....

☰ > 3

I think TM will need to think about how to counter the media at some point to get the general public (and their potential buyers) to see what the issues are, or more likely, are not.
In the last month there have been a few friends/associates of mine that when I mentioned I reserved a Model 3, they respond with "oh, and you know about the issues they have with the X, right?" Then go on to 'inform' me of it all but falling apart. And this reaction has been fron non 'car people'. People who don't follow the latest and greatest things coming out, but your run of the mill individual that only gets the occasional tech/auto headline coming up on their Twitter or Facebook feed.
It seems like with the mainstream $35k car coming, Tesla needs to get behind some PR efforts and educate the masses before they lose their respect before they have a chance to earn it.
Owner word of mouth is great, but a lot of damage could be done before everyone personally knows someone with a tesla.

TOO Founder / Administrator

The main issue here is that Tesla gets an inordinate amount of focus and press from the media. It's the same thing that Apple suffers from.

Whenever I hear those comments from friends I reply "do you believe everything you hear in the media?" These days people don't have the time or inclination to learn anything new. We're literally in a lot of ways turning into that movie "Idiocracy".

It's one of the main reasons why I started this site and my Youtube channel: to educate the masses about Tesla using FACTS. Soon I will have another venture that should take it even further

☰ > 3

it funny you mention Apple, because I nearly added a comment about the public's attitude toward Apple when the iPhone first came out. There were plenty of people scoffing at it and questioning how a computer company could even think they could produce a phone and how it would be the end of Apple.

ETA: I remember the month after the original iPhone came out, I went to a car meet-up in the bay area. One of my friends from that group was an Apple employee (on the computer software side, not phone) and had the new iPhone. Even he, a long time corporate Apple employee, was not thinking it would really take off and be more than a novelty for the die-hard Apple followers. I should remind him of that late night Patrón induced conversation and see what he thinks now

Dis Member

I'm not worried about Tesla's PR issues. I think they're handling it well. They *are* having issues with the doors on the early X's and they probably deserve to have their feet held to the fire.

But I've noticed that many of the articles that mention their "quality" problems are also mentioning how Tesla Service goes *way* beyond a local dealer's service department to fix all of the issues. I think that makes a huge difference in public perception. People are willing to accept and forgive even fairly big issues if it means that they get the latest wiz-bang shiny thing and they know the company will fix any problems that pop up without a fight.

Active Member

The main issue here is that Tesla gets an inordinate amount of focus and press from the media. It's the same thing that Apple suffers from.

Whenever I hear those comments from friends I reply "do you believe everything you hear in the media?" These days people don't have the time or inclination to learn anything new. We're literally in a lot of ways turning into that movie "Idiocracy".

It's one of the main reasons why I started this site and my Youtube channel: to educate the masses about Tesla using FACTS. Soon I will have another venture that should take it even further